1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to an optical personal inspection instrument making it possible for an individual, without assistance and in the privacy of his home, to examine an illuminated body orifice or other body site of interest not otherwise visually accessible, and more particularly to a hand-held instrument which includes a flashlight unit to illuminate the site of interest and mirrors associated therewith to direct an illuminated, enlarged image of the site of interest toward the eyes of the individual holding the instrument.
2. Status of Prior Art
The configuration of the human body is such that an individual who is not a contortionist is only able to directly view limited portions of his body, such as his arms and legs and frontal torso. A person cannot see his buttocks nor can he directly look into his ears or mouth. But by means of a mirror or a combination thereof, one can establish an optical path between the eyes and a body orifice or any body site of interest. As a practical matter, however, this is difficult to do without some means to hold the various mirrors at set angular positions.
Moreover, when using an arrangement of planar mirrors for this purpose, say, to inspect the anus, the length of the optical path between the eyes and the anus is such that the image seen by the eyes is far too small for proper inspection. And unless the ambient light level is high, the image, to the extent it can be seen, is dimly illuminated.
To facilitate shaving or make-up, it is known to provide a concave magnifying mirror having a lighting accessory, the mirror being wall-mounted on a hinged bracket so that it can be angularly adjusted for proper viewing. In this instance, the viewer sees an enlarged and well-illuminated reversed image of the face. But a device of this type is, for obvious reasons, not usable for personal inspection of the vagina or anus. Furthermore, a reverse image presents problems when the viewer is seeking, say, to cut hairs out of his ears with a scissors or carry out some other mechanical operation with his fingers which he sees in the magnifying mirror but in reverse relation, thereby making manipulation of the scissors difficult.
On occasion, one may need to conduct in the privacy of the home a personal inspection of the vagina, the anus or other visually inaccessible body site of interest. Thus, an individual may wish to see if there are piles or other eruptions at the site of interest, a skin discoloration or other abnormality that may require medical attention. There exists, however no commercially-available instrument for this purpose.
While physicians are equipped with various types of illuminated optical inspection instruments, even if these were available to individuals, they are not suitable for personal use without assistance. Thus, while an individual could bring such an inspection instrument (such as an endoscope) near his anus, he is in no position to look into the instrument. One could, in theory, couple an image-transmitting fiber optic cable to the eyepiece of the instrument, but such cables are very costly.